S’mores Cookie Bars

This is my favorite recipe ever. Hands down. Even if I ever try to tell you I made something more delicious than this creation, I’d be lying. These S’mores Cookie Bars are life changing. This dessert combines all of the essential s’more flavors of chocolate, graham cracker and marshmallow into an easy indoor treat that can be enjoyed hand-held or my personal favorite, warm and gooey just like a campfire s’more. Let’s kick off the official start of summer this week with these S’mores Cookie Bars.

This isn’t really a brand new recipe. I first made this recipe five years ago when The Salted Cookie was the new cookie blog on the block. It also meant that I used to take weird action shots of cracking eggs on my phone, and photographed recipes at night on aluminum foil. Oh how far we’ve come. To be honest, the original recipe still holds true as a legit s’mores bar recipe and I was looking for an excuse to take better photographs of the remake this summer of a few of my favorite recipes from my first year blogging.

One of the best changes from the original is using Hershey’s Chocolate Bars instead of chocolate chips. While you can still make this recipe with chocolate chips, it is a much less messy process to spread the marshmallow fluff over the chocolate bars instead of the chocolate chips. I also have learned how to better portion out the dough so that there’s a solid base, but still enough to cover the majority of the top.

I recommend chilling these in the fridge for an hour or more before cutting into them because it will make it much easier to serve. Though I have no judgement if anyone decided just to take a fork straight to the pan after they come out of the oven. They are great chilled or warm, but my personal preference is definitely to microwave my bar for a few seconds to get everything all melty gooey and eat it with a fork.

If you really want to up the ante on these bad boys, you can add peanut butter to the cookie dough to make these Peanut Butter S’mores Bars. I have some ideas on incorporating Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups into this recipe one day soon, which might put someone straight into a sugar coma, but definitely would be worth it.

So if you’re looking for a way to enjoy S’mores without the campfire or bug spray, whip up a batch of these S’mores Cookie Bars and enjoy the ooey gooey marshmallow chocolate goodness right in your kitchen. Enjoy!

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line an 8x8 baking dish with parchment paper and spray lightly with non-stick spray, making sure to get the sides covered well.

Using a stand or hand-mixer, beat the butter and sugars on medium speed until creamy. Beat in the egg yolks and vanilla extract. Scrape down the sides of the bowl before adding in the dry ingredients.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet batter on a low speed. Add in the graham cracker crumbs and continue to mix just until fully incorporated. Separate the dough so you have a little over half in one ball and the rest in another.

Spread the larger ball of dough evenly on the bottom of the prepared baking dish. Lay the two XL Hershey Bars on top. If you don't have Hershey Bars you can use chocolate chips in this step - probably about a cup and a half.

Microwave the fluff for about 10 seconds to make it easier to spread. Use a spatula to evenly spread the marshmallow fluff over the chocolate bars.

Take pieces of the remaining dough, flatten it in your hands and spread around the top of the marshmallow to cover as much area as possible. You will have some marshmallow peeking through, that's expected!

Bake at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes. Let the bars cool to room temperature before cutting them. I like to chill the bars in the refrigerator before slicing into them and then microwaving for 10-15 seconds and enjoying with a fork when they are super melty like a s'more! Enjoy!